In Nevada, where casino operators can employ shills to play in their clubs, it was established that a licensee may not act as a shill, gambling in their own establishment. Their spouse can’t either unless playing with money other than the licensee’s personal funds.

Photo from freeimages.com: “We’ve Got a Winner” by Dimitri C.

1926-present

By 1963, major casino owners in Reno, Nevada thought the downtown fixture was outdated and ugly compared to their modern buildings on Virginia Street. They even offered to pay for it and its maintenance for five years.

That was the Reno Arch, a famous city landmark.

They probably had a point. The arch originally had been installed in 1926 to celebrate completion of Highway 40 and advertise the associated exposition slated for the next year. In fact, the sign had read: “Reno / Nevada’s Transcontinental Highways Exposition June 29–Aug 1, 1927.” It spanned Virginia Street at Commercial Row.

The city, however, had changed the verbiage in 1929 to: “Reno / The Biggest Little City in the World.”

Some of the initial slogans in the running (oh, my) were:

• Reno, The West’s Highest Assay
• In Progressive Reno, Loiter, Linger, Locate
• Reno, Biggest Little Town On Earth
• Reno, A City You’ll Like
• Reno, The Best Out West
• East Or West, Reno Serves Best

Five years later, after numerous complaints about the new tagline, primarily by local organizations (some residents even wanted the entire sign taken down), the city had removed it, having left simply the word “RENO” in neon green letters. This change, too, upset some Renoites. Ultimately, in 1935, Reno had returned the slogan.

The new 1963 arch spotlighted the same wording but featured a mod style and colors — yellow, white and blue. A revolving star, encircled with lights, topped it. Creation of the sign cost Reno’s gambling consortium — Harolds Club, Primadonna Club, Nevada Club, Colony Club, Horseshoe and Poor Pete’s — about $100,000 (roughly $777,450 today).

Today’s arch, the third version, debuted in 1989, having undergone a makeover.

Sources

1961

It was hot inside and outside Harolds Club in Reno, Nevada on a Wednesday afternoon in the early summer of 1961.

Indoors, people gathered around to watch high-roller Lonnie Joe Chadwick on a winning streak. In his two-day spree playing 21, he already had cashed in about $30,000 to $50,000 ($239,000 to $398,000 today) and still had numerous $100 chips in front of him. He continued to bet the $500 limit at each of the gaming table’s seven spots.

Suddenly, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents appeared, interrupted Chadwick’s gambling rush and confiscated his more than $18,000 in chips!

Previously, they’d informed him that the federal government had “closed out his taxable year as of that time and the chips on the table were under levy for payment of taxes for the period” (Nevada State Journal, June 10, 1961) and had given him three-and-a-half months to file a return — which he hadn’t done.

“I’ll sue,” Chadwick said.

Although unusual, IRS representatives had made this move in the past in a Las Vegas casino, which was legal. A federal law allowed the Treasury department to declare the end to a person’s tax year when it appears they may not pay their income taxes otherwise. The agency rarely invoked the law and only in special cases. It’s unclear why it had done so with Chadwick; the law banned agents from disclosing reasons to the public. The IRS, however, had notified Chadwick beforehand of the assessment against him.

Business Repercussions?

The incident sparked some casino owners to wonder:

• Can the IRS truly legally take such action?

• Do we have to honor the chips the IRS seizes?

• Could this IRS practice negatively affect my business?

• Will the high rollers gamble underground as a result?

• Will it reduce the amount in gambling taxes going to the city, state and federal governments?

“We want to allay any fears of the clubs that this is any sort of harassment,” said Dalmon Davis, the IRS director for Nevada (Nevada State Journal, June 10, 1961). “This is an isolated incident, but there is no assurance it will not occur again if the situation warrants.”

The IRS gave Chadwick another three months to file a return, which he did only minutes before the deadline.

Sources

Illustration from pond5.com: “Uncle Sam and the USA Flag” by Batareykin